Vintage French randonneuer's and porteurs.

Guinessisgoodforyou said:
The more knowledge I obtain makes me realise how much I don't know. Always more questions than answers, no bad thing.
Click to expand...

Wanted to come back to this old buddy. For several reasons. Usual disclaimer at this time of evening ..... ;) :LOL::rolleyes:

As always ..... bear / bare / baar with me.

I think proper research in an historical context I would argue France is rather good - and no offence to any French reading this - due to it's somewhat rather precise bureaucratic nature. Our resident @grantoury historian is invaluable in the process and contributed many times when we ask about things and don't get a satisfactory reply at the click of the button. It is all hard time consuming to do a proper job with documented sources as living memory is fading and unreliable.

The next thing ..... almost obvious but I think worth mentioning. The French (I think practically all the Europe mainland) is based on a Mr. Bonapart where the calendar year postings and actual financial health of a company are "sort of known" with a lag. The decision making and dealing with a "lag" in legal sense for companies could with my limited knowledge drag on for potentially several years. I would argue count 2 years.

The next thing .... ramping up any relocation and tooling once legal ownership, transfer is granted and preparing the new entity obviously doesn't happen overnight.

For me, it get's really really murky when trying to figure out a specific date when exactly who did what and when concerning these old vintage bike parts. There's certainly a discrepancy of what the branding is, what inventory was on hand and transferred and then into the market, what could be sold off etc. I would argue count 2 years minimum.

All I want to really say is dating the bike part in your hand needs to be met with some reserve and tolerance. When we get well into very vintage I would argue with the far less precision and the printed press if you are approx. in a +/- 3 year it's hat's off.

One thing that I (we) constantly finding is some sort of very simple holistic view is missing. With the IT tools today it must be possible to generate a complete time line and help drill down, and also help connect some of the dots?

Would be monumental work obviously.

Anyhow. Just happy to learn. I think it's going to be sometime when we stop learning. Happy you made this place @Guinessisgoodforyou

Final word. It's not all about bikes. There's Comte cheese and Cote du Rhone to digest. ;)
 
Filochard said:
While browsing the Daniel Rebour files produced by @HeikoS69 (many thanks), I came across an article that piqued my curiosity.

This article published during the 1956 summer in Le Cycle was titled:
"A French bicycle for President Eisenhower. Intelligent and opportune initiative of the Fédération Française de Cyclisme."

Here is the translation by HeikoS69:
"The plate (let's not talk about a brand) decorating the head tube of the bicycle offered to "IKE" by the Fédération Française de Cyclisme (French Cycling Federation) represents a very simplified map of France, bearing in the centre the "arms" of the Federation, cock on a blue-white-red shield and bicycle wheel, and the inscription: F.F.C. AU PRESIDENT EISENHOWER.

This bicycle is of the "city" type, enamelled by LAPIERRE in "France" blue with white and red threads, white sleeve and tricolour rings, chrome-plated fork ends, headlugs and fork head.

The frame, with lugs from the Franco-Swiss company "Sté Franco-Suisse d'Emboutissage" and SIMPLEX dropouts, was built by the Dijon specialist, Mr SCHMIDELY; the chrome plating was carried out by SIMPLEX, and the assembly of the bicycle by Mr JUY.

Note the MAVIC rims, Etienne PERRIN hubs, J. MOYNE freewheel, HUTCHINSON tyres, BRAMPTON chain, "JUY 543" type derailleur and SIMPLEX quick releases, PEUGEOT fenders, chaincase and luggage rack, STRONGLIGHT dural crankset, LYOTARD pedals, H GAUTHIER saddle, light metal A.V.A. handlebars, MAFAC brakes, CIBIE lighting, MISTRAL pump. It should be noted that the headplate, representing a stylised France, bears the arms of the F.F.C. and the inscription: F.F.C. AU PRESIDENT EISENHOWER; on the horizontal tube, the initials in white: D. E."

View attachment 1005252


The article unfortunately gives no details about the reasons that motivated the FFC to offer this gift to the American president at this precise moment.
The Marshall Plan which allowed European economies to bounce back quickly after WW2 has been completed for 5 years and President Eisenhower, elected in 1953 for the first of the two terms he will complete, did not directly participate.

Perhaps the French officials saw there an opportunity to show the American authorities the know-how of the French bicycle industry in the hope of accessing their market at a time when their outlets were significantly reduced by the arrival in force of popular cars and especially mopeds (the Vélosolex and Mobylette have taken their toll).

President Eisenhower was not known as a cyclist, his favorite sport was golf.
He had just suffered a serious heart attack (6 others will follow before the end of his terms ...) and even if his cardiologist was a fervent bicycle advocate, he never managed to convince Ike to get into it.

So I wonder what happened to this bicycle.
The Eisenhower Presidential Library informed me that "unfortunately, our museum does not have this particular bicycle in the collection. We have reviewed our gift files in the archives and did not find any information on the French Cycling Federation of bicycles."

Apart from the article by D. Rebour, the only documents that I found that testify to this event are a set of photos (without date or caption) showing the presentation of this bicycle to an official couple (?) by three men, two of them in casual attire.
These photos are stored in the USA’s national archives:
https://catalog.archives.gov/search-within/18463478

Here is a zoom on this beautiful bike:
View attachment 1005275
Click to expand...
Hi @Filochard
wasn't here for a while, so just now I saw this post.
Two more photos from that magazine:
20251015_230531.webp
20251015_230404.webp

"Our cover photo:

A FRENCH BICYCLE for PRESIDENT EISENHOWER

A smart and timely initiative by the French Cycling Federation

Major news outlets recently reported that President Eisenhower is an avid cyclist and that he occasionally promotes the use of bicycles. Our magazine had already shown this two years ago, when we covered one of his grandchildren's first bike rides.

Having learned of this welcome news, the French Cycling Federation, represented in this case by its President, Mr. Achille Joinard, and its Secretary General, Mr. René Chesal, decided to offer the President of the United States a beautiful French bicycle.

It is the bicycle pictured on the cover that will be presented to him through the U.S. Embassy in Paris. This machine, which is undoubtedly extremely well-made and completely anonymous, was assembled under the direction of Mr. Lucien Juy, creator of the Simplex derailleur. The great industrialist from Dijon has been very successful in this venture, and “Ike” will certainly enjoy riding this bike from France.

Below is the technical description of this bicycle, marked “France,” which will serve our propaganda purposes magnificently on the other side of the Atlantic.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)"
 
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